Using Liquibase with MariaDB, skySQL, or MariaDB AWS RDS
MariaDB delivers operational agility with key enterprise features, including real ACID compliance and full SQL. It provides two solutions:
- MariaDB Platform, which includes an open-source database solution—MariaDB Server along with Xpand, ColumnStore, and MaxScale.
- MariaDB Cloud (or MariaDB SkySQL), which is a cloud database service (DBaaS) that delivers MariaDB Platform on the expert-maintained cloud infrastructure from MariaDB Corporation.
You can also use MariaDB on Amazon RDS. For more information about MariaDB, see the MariaDB Knowledge Base.
Supported Versions
- 10.2
- 10.3
- 10.4
- 10.5
- 10.6
- 10.7
Note: The supported versions are the versions that were tested with Liquibase Test Harness.
Prerequisites
Before using Liquibase with your database, ensure you have:
- Installed Liquibase.
- Created a Liquibase project folder to store all Liquibase files.
- Created a new Liquibase properties file or are using the existing
liquibase.properties
file included in the installation package. For more information, see Specifying Properties in a Connection Profile.
Warning: If you create the Liquibase properties file, do not name it mariadb.properties
. This file name conflicts with a properties file that is released with the MariaDB driver.
Driver Information
To use Liquibase and MariaDB, you need to have the JDBC driver .jar file. Liquibase comes with a pre-installed driver for MariaDB in the liquibase/lib
directory. For more information, see Adding and Updating Liquibase Drivers.
Note: If you place the mariadb-java-client-version.jar
file in a different directory, specify the path in the Liquibase properties file, as follows: classpath:../path_to_drivers/mariadb-java-client-version.jar
. For more information, see Specifying Properties in a Connection Profile.
If you use Maven, you also need to download the MariaDB driver jar file and put the driver in a location that your Maven build can access. Configure the Maven pom.xml
file to use the local copy of the driver jar file. For example:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.mariadb.jdbc</groupId>
<artifactId>mariadb-java-client</artifactId>
<version>2.7.3</version>
</dependency>
Testing Your Connection
For Liquibase and MariaDB to work, you need to:
- Ensure your MariaDB is configured. See the following:
- Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file or as a parameter to the command in the CLI. See the following:
- Create a text file called changelog (
.xml
,.sql
,.json
, or.yaml
) in your project directory and add a changeset.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<databaseChangeLog
xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext"
xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-4.9.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd
http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-4.9.xsd">
<changeSet id="1" author="Liquibase">
<createTable tableName="test_table">
<column name="test_id" type="int">
<constraints primaryKey="true"/>
</column>
<column name="test_column" type="varchar"/>
</createTable>
</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

-- liquibase formatted sql
-- changeset liquibase:1
CREATE TABLE test_table (test_id INT, test_column VARCHAR, PRIMARY KEY (test_id))
Note: Formatted SQL changelogs generated by using Liquibase versions previous to 4.2 might cause issues because of the lack of space after a double dash ( -- ).
Tip: To fix those issues, add a space after the double dash. For example: -- liquibase formatted sql
instead of --liquibase formatted sql
and -- changeset myname:create-table
instead of --changeset myname:create-table

databaseChangeLog:
- changeSet:
id: 1
author: Liquibase
changes:
- createTable:
columns:
- column:
name: test_column
type: INT
constraints:
primaryKey: true
nullable: false
tableName: test_table

{
"databaseChangeLog": [
{
"changeSet": {
"id": "1",
"author": "Liquibase",
"changes": [
{
"createTable": {
"columns": [
{
"column":
{
"name": "test_column",
"type": "INT",
"constraints":
{
"primaryKey": true,
"nullable": false
}
}
}]
,
"tableName": "test_table"
}
}]
}
}]
}
- Navigate to your project folder in the CLI and run the Liquibase status command to see whether the connection is successful. You can pass arguments in the CLI or keep them in the Liquibase properties file.
- Run your first update with the update command, which makes changes to your database. You can also run the update-sql command to inspect the SQL before running the
update
command.
liquibase --username=test --password=test --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> status
liquibase --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> update-sql
liquibase --changelog-file=<changelog.xml> update
From a database UI tool, ensure that your database contains the table you added along with the DATABASECHANGELOG table and DATABASECHANGELOGLOCK table.
MariaDB Server
- Check the status of the database by running the
SHOW [GLOBAL | SESSION] STATUS
command. - Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file, as follows:
url: jdbc:mariadb://<host>:<port>/<dbname>
MariaDB on AWS RDS
- Check the connection by using the mysql utility and running the following:
mysql -h <endpoint> -P 3306 -u <mymasteruser> -p
Note: The alternative way is to connect with the SSL certificate.
You can find the connection information in the AWS Management Console:
- Open the Amazon RDS console
- Select Databases and choose the needed database
- Select Connectivity & security. You will see all information under Endpoint & Port.
To find the connection information using the AWS CLI and RDS API, refer to the Connecting to a DB instance running the MariaDB database engine documentation.
- Specify the database URL in the Liquibase properties file, as follows:
url: jdbc:mariadb://<endpoint>:<port>/<dbname>
Example: url:jdbc:mariadb://myrds.cz1j1vh9uvuo.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com:3306/mydatabase

